tlie wild forerunner of doniosfic horses was marked, and ho 

 c'itos in support of this opiiiion the alleged fact that in 

 several species of the cat family stripes pass into spots. In 

 opposition to this it must be urg«'d that a pattern of trans- 

 verse stripes is a very unusual style of coloration in Mammalia, 

 and that in members of the cat lamily, in the tij^cr for instance, 

 it is tolerably certain that the stripes owe their origin to the 

 fusion in transverse lines of solitl spots or of large irregularly 

 disposed rosette-shaped or subcircular blotches *. Therofore, 

 adopting Darwin's analogy, if dapples and stripes in horsea 

 stanil in the same relation to one another as spots and .stri|)es 

 in jaguars and tigers, it follows that the dappled pattern 

 preceded the striped pattern in the evolution of equine colora- 

 tion. It is at all events possible, perhaps indeed more likely 

 than not, that this is the true explanation of the persistence 

 with which the dap|dod pattern crops up in diverse breeds of 

 domesticated horses. As Dr. Bonavia, perhaps exaggera- 

 tedly, said, " the very fact that the dappling is so persistently 

 inherited, either wholly or vestigially, would indicate that it 

 comes from the very foundation of horse evolution " f. 



Darwin, moreover, cites a case of a donkt^y marked in this 

 way, a fact which shows, assuming the truth of the hypothesis, 

 that the dappling has not wholly died out in the asinine line 

 of descent. 



The black-and-white-striped coloration of zebras shows 

 that there is nothing intrinsically improbable in the suppo- 

 sition of the existence in former days of a wild horse mottled 

 with black and white. There seem to be no reasons to think 

 that with a slightly different environment the dappled or 

 mottled pattern would not be as beneficially procryptic as the 

 striped is known to be. Perhaps it would lend itself espe- 

 cially to concealment in horses accustomed to shelter in woods 

 through the foliage of which the sun-rays passed, dappling 

 the leaves and tree-trunks with spots of light. 



It appears to me to be impossible to say which breed of 

 horses in which dapple-grey individuals crop up approaches 



pifrment which formerly produced stripes .... has in recent times been 

 as it were left uncontrolled, with the result that it frequently gives rise 

 to ever-varvinp;' and quite moaningless dapjiling, or to liirjre equally 

 meaninjrle>»9 blotches' ('Pen^cuick Kxperiiuenis,' pp. li'.S l'J4, isjm). 

 Yet pijrnieiit which adheres bo jH-rsisteutly to the diipjiKd pattcru can 

 scareelv be dejjcribi'd as uncdut roiled. 



• I'ocock, .\nn. & Mimt. Nat. Hist. (7) xx. n. 430 (1007). 



t 'Studies in the Kvolution of .-\niuial«, p. (M (18i)')). This work, 

 althoujih the reverse of orlho<lox in many of its conclusions, is well worth 

 careful reading for its recorded facts. 



Ann. <(; .1%. A'. Hist. Ser. 8. Vol. iv. 29 



